With both sides declaring war now that Rob Ford is eligible to run, a byelection is all but inevitable should the mayor lose his appeal to remain in office.

That much was clear Friday after Justice Charles Hackland clarified that his conflict of interest decision does not prevent Ford from running in a byelection. The amendment also frees up council to reappoint Ford.

Selecting a “caretaker” mayor until the end of term rather than spend $7 million on a byelection is what much of council appeared to favour earlier this week, when Ford’s potential candidacy was in debate. But now that Ford’s name will be on the ballot, neither side is interested in appeasement — especially following Thursday’s riotous council meeting, which devolved into a screaming brawl between the Ford brothers and the opposition.

At one point, Councillor Doug Ford appeared to yell “I’ll whup both your asses,” to councillors Adam Vaughan and Gord Perks.

With city hall more polarized than ever, both sides feel they need to go to the voters. And both sides think they can win.

“Only a byelection can clear these guys out of town… The gloves are off,” declared Councillor Shelley Carroll shortly after news of Hackland’s decision made it to city hall.

Carroll is one of three high-profile progressive candidates mulling a mayoral bid.

“Let’s take this to the public and let’s show him for his true colours. Let’s have him run for mayor again only now people have seen him for what he really is.”

With concerns about vote-splitting, Carroll said “very serious discussions” are going to start over the weekend about who is best positioned to take Ford on in an election.

Meanwhile, Ford Nation is already in re-election mode.

On Thursday night, even before Hackland amended his judgment, an election-style campaign ad titled Respect Democracy was posted on YouTube.

The video begins with soft piano music and footage of Ford’s victory rally after winning the election.

“In 2010, almost 400,000 Torontonians sent mayor Rob Ford to clean up city hall. Now, that election has been thrown out because of a politically motivated technical objection over how he raised money for underprivileged kids,” a woman says over images of Toronto, city hall and a billowing Canada flag.

It then links to a website, respectdemocracy.ca

It’s unclear who is behind the site.

Both the mayor’s office and the architect of Ford’s 2010 “Gravy Train” campaign, Nick Kouvalis, have denied any involvement.

Vaughan, another left-wing Councillor considering a run, said this pre-campaigning is just another example of Ford Nation trying to get around the rules.

The Trinity-Spadina councillor, who has been one of Ford’s most fervent critics over the last two years, said he isn’t worried about vote splitting, although the progressive candidates are keeping an eye on it.

News that Ford could be a contender doesn’t seem to have scared off any of the other potential candidates. In fact, upon hearing the news, Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti — who earlier this week quit the mayor’s executive committee, but said he wasn’t interested in the top job — announced that he was considering it.

Mammoliti says that while he’d favour the appointment process rather than spending millions on a byelection, “that will never happen now.” The left, he said, won’t pass up a chance to seize power and the administration knows they won’t be appointed.

Former mayoral candidate, Progressive Conservative leader and current talk radio host John Tory quipped “what, and give up show business?” when asked — not entirely ruling out the possibility.

Right-wing councillors Karen Stintz and Denzil Minnan-Wong both avoided a reporter's call Friday, as did MP Olivia Chow. All are still weighing their odds in a byelection.

“I’ve had conversations with Olivia about making sure that the next mayor is better, smarter and stronger than the one we’ve got now,” Vaughan said. “It’s not about the personal ambition that any of us have, it’s about moving the city forward… I love this city and I’m tired of it being abused by incompetence.”

It’s been less than a week since Hackland sent shock waves through the city, concluding he had no choice but to order Ford from office for violating municipal conflict of interest legislation.

Hackland found that the mayor had in fact broken the law when he spoke to and then voted on an item at council that financially benefitted him. The city’s integrity commissioner had earlier ordered Ford to personally repay $3,150 in donations to his football charity, which he had solicited from lobbyists. Council, along with the mayor, voted to remove that sanction earlier this year.

Hackland said that while the amount is small, the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act is black and white. The Ottawa judge could have barred Ford from running again until 2019, but Hackland said that given the minor nature of the infraction, he wanted to impose no further ramifications “beyond the current term.”

The legal community was split on what that meant. Ford’s legal team believed the term ends when Ford leaves office. City solicitor Anna Kinastowski concluded that a “term” is four years.

On Friday, Hackland agreed to amend his ruling and take out the “term” reference.

Kinastowski explained in a private email to councillors: “The current amended wording of the decision indicates that the court decision does not disqualify Mayor Ford from appointment to fill the vacancy or from running in a byelection to fill the vacancy.”

Next week, Ford’s lawyer, Alan Lenczner, will ask for a stay of Hackland’s ruling until the appeal is settled. Lenczner is expected to face an appeal court in early January. A decision will likely take about a month.

If Ford is unsuccessful, council will have 60 days from that point to choose a caretaker mayor or order a byelection. From there, a deadline for nominations must be set within two months. Torontonians will head to the polls 45 days after the nomination deadline.

This potentially could push a byelection into the fall, which most councillors are opposed to. If Ford is unsuccessful in his appeal, council would likely react quickly, seeing voters heading to the polls as early as April.

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